Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the technical field of lighting. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of creating visible light in a particular place. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of creating multi-dimensional images with light. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of creating moving images with light. More particularly, the present invention is in the technical field of creating moving multi-dimensional images with light.
Description of the Related Art
Conventional devices for creating light in space, or images in space sometimes referred to as holograms, typically create a visible image in light as well as visible scanning lines or other visible image creation artifacts, or they use lasers outside of the visible spectrum with sufficient power to create visible plasma from the viewing medium such as air or water. Being able to see the visible light used to create the visible image can detract from the image, and high powered light sources can be dangerous for observers.
Light appearing in space, some holograms, and disembodied lighting may be described as visible lighting in one place that is spatially and or visibly disconnected from the lighting device.
Light bulbs from the incandescing type (U.S. Pat. No. 223,898, Jan. 27, 1880, T A Edison) to the recent LED type (U.S. Pat. No. 8,439,528, May 14, 2013, R J Lenk et al) create visible light. Many do so with sufficient brightness to illuminate rooms, they may be safely handled and maintained by homeowners, and they convert energy into light with increasing efficiency as technologies develop. One common feature of such light sources is that the mechanism of the light source is at the same place of the visible light, that is to say the visible light appears to emanate from inside of the light bulb. This is a shortcoming when disembodied lighting is desired.
A traditional mounting place for a light bulb in the home is the ceiling mount, where a chord hangs from the ceiling and the light source is high in the room. When disembodied lighting is desired, one shortcoming of such a light source is that there is a visible supporting mechanism connecting the light source to the ceiling.
Lamps such as angle-poise lights (U.S. Pat. No. 2,090,439, Aug. 17, 1937, G Carwardine) have a light source at the end of a movable stand or frame allowing the light source to be moved in two or three dimensions. When disembodied lighting is desired one shortcoming of such light sources is that there is a visible supporting mechanism connecting the light source to the floor or desk or some other mounting surface.
Lasers (U.S. Pat. No. 8,104,894, Jan. 31, 2012, K Mori et al) can create visible light that can be shone in beams to present visible images and data. A laser beam can be shone at a target surface such as a wall creating a spot of light on the target surface. With the usual amount of dust and particles in normal air, in the absence of bright light such as sunlight, a laser beam can be seen as a straight line of light from the laser source to the wall, at least that is the perception to a human observer. The reflected light on the wall is usually brighter than the light reflected along the beam by the particles. One shortcoming of such light is that both the target light is visible and the beam or scanning beams of light are visible. In some settings such as a night club or live music concert the visible scanning beams of a laser are used as a lighting effect and are intended to be seen.
There are lighting devices that draw visible images in a screen or wall by scanning a laser beam, the scanning is in one or two or three dimensions. Visible images are created by devices that form a screen in the air using smoke and shine a scanned laser beam onto this screen forming a visible image. The visible image can be just light, or be rendered as information such as words or graphic images. One shortcoming of such light is that both the target is visible and the beam or scanning beams of light are visible.
Scanning and focusing light and lasers is well understood and found in everyday items such as focusable flash lights, television screens, video projectors, cinema projectors, pen-light lasers, night club lighting including scanning pattern generating lasers, as well as in devices to position light in air (U.S. Pat. No. 7,776,485, Aug. 3, 2010, Momiuchi et al).
The presentation of partial and still images shown in time sequence to give the impression of a moving image to an observer is well know, including the flick book (British Patent 925, Mar. 18, 1868, John Linnett; U.S. Pat. No. 259,960, Jun. 20, 1882, Henry Van Hoevenbergh), film and cinema (U.S. Pat. No. 589,168, Aug. 31, 1897, Thomas Edison), television (U.S. Pat. No. 2,133,123, Oct. 11, 1938, Kaunan Tihanyi), and computer displays. All of these devices use, to some extent, the human eye and visual systems ability to see and perceive sequences of still images as continuous moving images.
In a cathode ray tube television set an electron beam is fired, scanned, and aimed at a target surface coated with a suitable substance such as phosphor. The electron beam is not visible by a human observer, but the phosphor that absorbs the electron beam energy converts some of that energy to visible light. One shortcoming of such light sources is that the target surface must be made of a material that can convert an invisible source of electrons and associated energy into visible light. Another shortcoming of such light sources is that the target surface itself tends to be fairly opaque.
A photographic reflection hologram (U.S. Pat. No. 8,440,370, May 14, 2013, S Martin et al) can render a three dimensional view of a scene when illuminated. One shortcoming of such a three dimensional optical image is that the image is stationary; it is a still photograph or a series of still photographs, and only gives the illusion of being a three dimensional image.
The illusion of a three dimensional image is created 3D televisions and 3D cinema marketed in 2013. These and similar systems send different images to each eye. In the minds-eye the image is 3-dimensional, and is sometimes referred to as “coming out of the screen”. One shortcoming of such systems is that they require special glasses or headsets or per-eye image manipulation devices to be worn near the eyes, such as 3D glasses. When the image manipulation component is removed, say the 3D glasses are taken off, the viewer finds the image is not really in 3D. Lenticular displays use two images, one for each eye, but do not require special 3D glasses. One shortcoming of 3D displays that use 3D glasses and of lenticular displays is that the three dimensional image is an illusion in the minds-eye and the image is not really in three dimensions and is not separate from the viewing medium or image creation device.
A computer generated hologram (U.S. Pat. No. 8,451,428, May 28, 2013, I Matsubara) can render an image using multiple polarizations of light projected into a medium with multiple substrates that are differently sensitive to specific polarizations of light. One shortcoming of such a visible image is the complex nature of the viewing medium, another shortcoming is the complex nature of the optics.
A laser beam or other visible light in the visible spectrum can be used to draw a visible image in air or on a screen or to illuminate a hologram. One shortcoming of this is that the scanning locus of the laser beam or light is visible and seen drawing the image as well as the image itself being visible. Another shortcoming of this is when screens are made visible as well as the image.
Using a light source, analogue and digital imaging, optics and a computer controlled DLP micro mirror projector, a still image or computer screen image or video image can be projected, usually onto a flat viewing area. Such video projectors are commonplace in cinemas and offices, as well as homes and “home cinema.”
Using a light source, analogue and digital imaging, optics and a computer controlled DLP micro mirror projector (U.S. Pat. No. 7,926,951, Apr. 19, 2011, R J Bietry et al) a holographic image can be rendered (Optical Society of America, 10 Mar. 2003, Vol. 11, No 5, Optics Express 437. M L Huebschman et al). One shortcoming of such a system is that the holographic image is rendered on a flat surface, for example the three dimensional image can be viewed in either the micro mirror itself or in a sheet of glass.
In a dimly lit room, with the normal amount of dust motes in the air, two laser pointers (U.S. Pat. No. 7,971,790, Jul. 5, 2011, C L Hung et al) may be oriented so that their laser beams cross. Two beams of light would be seen that came from the lasers, crossed at a point that appears brighter than the beam, and then the beams carry on in their original direction. For lighting a particular place where the beams cross, one shortcoming of such a system is that the laser beam is visible to that point and past that point.
A system exists for drawing two-dimensional and three-dimensional visible images using scanned and focused laser light tuned to illicit plasma from the air. The plasma is visible while the laser light is not in the visible spectrum and this creates a visible flash of light positioned in space (U.S. Pat. No. 7,776,485, Aug. 3, 2010, Momiuchi et al; U.S. Pat. No. 7,533,995, May 19, 2009, Momiuchi et al). The laser light can be made invisible to a human observer by being in the infra-red color spectrum for example, a color that is not visible to a human observer. One shortcoming of such a system is that an “impact noise is generated” when creating plasma. Another shortcoming of such a system is that plasma has to be created from the viewing medium such as air or water. Another shortcoming of such a system is that the laser light source is relatively high powered, requiring sufficient power to create plasma from air or water. Another shortcoming of such a system is that infrared lasers and lasers with power capable to create plasma from air pose inherent safety risks for nearby observers.
The human eye sees visible light. The eye has varying sensitivity to different colors of light. Specifically there are components in the eye called “cones” that are differently sensitive to red, green and blue light. Schubert describes the “eye sensitivity function” in terms of light color (wavelength), with the eye being increasingly sensitive to violet (around 400 to 450 nm wavelength), blue (around 475 nm wavelength), cyan (around 500 nm wavelength), then maximally sensitive to green (around 520 to 570 nm wavelength). After green the eye is decreasingly sensitive to yellow (around 570 to 600 nm wavelength), orange (around 600 to 620 nm wavelength), and red light (620 to 750 nm wavelength). This makes up the visible spectrum of light for humans; (“Light Emitting Diodes”, Second edition, by E. F. Schubert. Cambridge University Press, 2006.) The approximate vision range for humans is described by Schubert in terms of {no moon, moonlight, twilight, store or office, and sunny outdoors}. At night in low ambient light humans use “Scotopic vision”, with luminance levels from 1E-6 to <0.003 cd/m2, “the sense of color is essentially lost in the scotopic vision regime”. In moonlight to twilight humans use “Mesopic vision”, with luminance levels from 0.003 to 3 cd/m2. In high ambient light humans use “photopic vision”, with luminance levels from 3 to 1E6 cd/m2. (“Light Emitting Diodes”, Second edition, by E. F. Schubert. Cambridge University Press, 2006.)
Many devices that use light that is not intended to be seen by humans use light in the non-visible spectrum, such as infrared light for television remote control units, “invisible” security lighting that can not be seen by humans but can be sensed by specially tuned cameras, and non-visible lasers for creating visible plasma (U.S. Pat. No. 7,776,485, Aug. 3, 2010, Momiuchi et al).
The scientific understanding that visible colors can be created by combining other colors is long established and well understood since the introduction of the color wheel (“Opticks”, 1706, Sir Isaac Newton).
With readily available consumer devices such as mobile phones, printers, computer displays, televisions and video projectors; digital images can be rendered in vivid colors close to the original color, in focus, and in great clarity and detail. However it is also common to apply artifacts to these clean images such as visual effects, and artifacts that are culturally and historically understood such as adding visual aspects found in film photography. Culturally and historically understood visual artifacts include making a color digital image look old-fashioned by changing from color to sepia-tone, reduced color or saturating color, or adding scratches and dust. Such effects are commonly applied to still and moving image. The mobile phone application “Instagram” (Facebook Inc, California, USA) performs such image manipulations and has over 130 million users applying their image filters to over 45 million photos and movies per day (Statistics from Instagram on Jul. 5, 2013).